MUHAMMAD Shafique Mir, now nearly 70, is a member of Muzaffarabad`s community of traditional bakers who have been making famous Kashmiri goodies -Kul-cha and Shirmaal in firewood ovens for generations.

On the morning of Oct 8, 2005, Shafique was at his shop when the earthquake struck at 8:52am, catchingeveryone off guard. No one had ever imagined such a catastrophic tremor could hit the region.

Despite the alley being no more than five feet wide, only two lives were lost in that narrow lane. However, Shanque had noidea ofthehorror awaiting him just 600 yards away, at home.

`Through the collapsed structures and the cries of pain, I somehow made my way to our house,` Shafique recalls, his voice dripping with emotion.

When he arrived, he was met by a mountain of rubble where his three-storey home once stood, burying everyone inside.

Nine family members were pulled out alive, but five others-his daughter, three paternal cousins, and their motherremained trapped beneath the debris. Five bodies were recovered within the next ten days, with the final remains being found 23 days later.

Heartbreakingly, two more cousins and an infant niece were killed at different locations. One cousin, a university lecturer, died while on his way to work. His infant daughter, carried by a maid to her grandmother`s nearby house, went missing. Both bodies were recovered six months later, when official agencies cleared the streets of rubble.

Another cousin perished in his shop at Upper Adda, along with a customer.In a nearby alley, eight more family members lost their lives in the home of a distant cousin.

`October brings it all back,` Shafique says quietly. `The pain we endure is impossible to put into words.

Shafique`s story is not an isolated one.

Though life appears to have returned to normal on the surface, the psychological scars left by the disaster remain deeply ingrained.

In almost every household, survivors continue to struggle with the emotional toll of their losses, trying to overcome memories that still haunt them.

Living with trauma Shafaq Nadeem, now 51 and an officer in the AJK Health Department, says that day changed his life, forever.

The earthquake took her parents and brother when their family home collapsed in the Plate neighbourhood. A paternal uncle and cousin died separately in their ownhome in Madina Market.

`The quake didn`t just destroy our homes; it shattered our dreams, our hopes, and our futures. Even after all these years, the scars remain, and the memories of that day still haunt me.

The enduring emotional impact of the earthquake has been felt across generations.

Dr Khawaja Hamid Rashid, a leading psychiatrist in Muzaffarabad, has counselled thousands of survivors suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

`With time, many survivors have moved past the acute symptoms, but around one-third remain deeply affected by trauma,` Dr Rashid explains.

`The difference now is that they keep it to themselves.

Some survivors have isolated themselves, while others have left the towns and neighbourhoods where they lost loved ones.`I know people who left Muzaffarabad after losing childrenin the quake and have refused to return, despite still owning property here,` he says.

Interestingly, Dr Rashid has observed another phenomenon in recent years.

`While many parents who lost children sought counselling, Pm now seeing more grown-up children seeking help. These young people, on the verge of entering college or beginning their professional lives, struggle with the absence of parents they lost to the quake.

`It would be wrong to say the psychological impact of the earthquake has ended. PTSD and other emotional issues continue to linger, manifesting in different ways,` he adds.

Promises made and broken The disaster had claimed over 46,000 lives and injured another 33,100 in AJK alone, in addition to destroying or damaging 314,474 homes and reducing nearly all essential facilities and infrastructure to rubble, aid poured in from across the globe to help Pakistan rebuild the shattered cities, towns, and villages.

The federal government established the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) to spearhead rebuilding efforts. In AJK and KP, the State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Serra) and Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Perra) were created to ensure the smooth execution of reconstruction-related projects.

In the initial years, Erra`s primary focus was providing compensation, housing grants and livelihood recovery. Later, it shifted to reconstruction-related work, during which the Erra Board approved the reconstruction of 7,608 projects in AJK from time to time. These projects were divided into three funding modes: sponsorfunded, donor-funded, and government of Pakistan-funded projects.

The Muzaffarabad City Development Project (MCDP) had a proposed allocation of $361 million $300 million through Chinese preferential buyer`s credit and the rest 15pc counterpart funding by Islamabad but ended up with an allocation of just $191.075m, that too after delays due to disagreements on overhead costswith Chinese construction firms. The remaining amount was divided between Bagh and Rawalakot.

Unlike Serra, where the AJK government had appointed an efficient team of officials from various departments to oversee reconstruction across all three modes of execution, the selection of staff for the project management units (PMUs) of urban development programmes remained solely under Erra`s control, effectively side-lining the AJK government from the process.

`Erra was supposed to approve and monitor projects, not execute them directly, said a retired AJK government official who held a key position in the post-earthquake period, explaining that Erra`s 2007 ordinance assigned responsibility for project execution to the local governments of AJK and KP.

Although all 2,409 projects funded by sponsors and donors were completed on time, as many as 1,730 of the projects that were to be financed by Islamabad remain in limbo, stalled due to a lack of funds since 2021, according to Serra officials. These include 1,112 schools and 41 health facilities.

Forgotten future Due to these bureaucratic shifts, the most vulnerable continue to suffer: nearly 200,000 children in AJK`s quake-affected areas remain deprived of proper schooling and are forced to study outdoors in the harsh weather because educational infrastructure projects remain incomplete.

Irshada Bibi, a teacher at a girls` primary school in Jiskool village in Jhelum Valley District, laments her students` dire conditions. `It`s difficult to teach students, particularly in winter. When it rains, we have to send them home. We are in dire need of a building,` she says.

Similar stories emerge from other schools, where either construction was left unfinished or never began.

Ali Abbasi, a 10th-grade student at Boys High School Duchore Mira`n, a mountainvillage just 38 kilometres from Muzaffarabad, shares his frustration: `We`ve grown up seeing this unfinished building as our school. People in cities can`t imagine the conditions in whichwe try to fulfil our parents` dreams.

`What`s our fault? Why are we forced to study in such conditions?` he adds, echoing the sentiments of countless students who desperately await completion of their respective school buildings.

Building codes: a grey area While the infrastructure that emerged after the earthquake, including educational institutions, health facilities, and government offices, has undeniably transformed the outlook of previously devastated cities, the reality remains mixed.

Public sector buildings have been constructed in strict compliance with building codes, ensuring they are now earthquakeresistant. However, adherence to building codes in the private sector tells a different story.

The worst-affected areas, streets that many hoped would be widened during reconstruction, have instead fallen prey to encroachments.

In Muzaffarabad`s Khawaja Mohalla, one of the hardest-hit areas where hundreds lost their lives in an instant and rescue efforts were delayed for weeks, new concrete buildings have sprung up. Yet, the narrow streets, once considered a priority for widening, remain unchanged.

Unplanned construction, with little regard for building codes, has since spread across the city, adding to its vulnerability to future disasters.

`The recommendations and guidelines were blatantly ignored,` says Raja Omar Ahsan, an activist with years of experience in relief and rehabilitation activities.

`While most public sector buildings follow the codes, unchecked urbanisation and construction in red zones-areas at high risk-are another disaster waiting to happen. Muzaffarabad sits on two fault lines, and yet we act as if that danger doesn`t exist.

A detailed version of this article can be accessed on Dawn.com